Gig Review

Iced Earth
Warbringer, Elm Street
Birmingham, Academy
12th January 2014

Iced Earth            Warbringer                       Elm Street
                     

Elm Street do well as far as opening is concerned, but I do wish someone would tell the singer he didn’t have to scream when he wasn’t singing, a) it hurts the ears and b) it’s very difficult to understand at times. There was no shortage of explosive energy as they look like their having seizures with the speed of that hair swinging round, they’re enthusiastic and hungry to perform which is a great thing to see and perhaps with maturity will come a more professional feeling set, whilst I enjoyed watching them I cannot say that I would pay to watch them headline which mean’s I wasn’t overly thrilled.

Warbringer are by far the superior thrash act of the evening, they obtain an essential technique when playing to a crowd of people whom may possibly have no idea who you are, and that my friends is the simple art of humour. Their vocalist manages to poke fun out of the crowd and himself when his failed attempts for a pitt crash and burn and during those rare awkward silences that sometimes arise. Crossed with this their material really is extraordinary and really raises the energy levels and pushes hyperactivity within me but you’d never notice as everyone is stood stiff as a board in the room with a few exceptions. Promoting their latest album “IV: Empires Collapse” they plough through their set for what only feels like 10 minutes to me but turned out to be more along the lines of 40 minutes, time it would appear really does fly when you’re having fun!

Iced Earth get off to a very rocky start when the microphone doesn’t exactly perform as it should… well it didn’t perform at all, the only glimpse of anything lead vocal wise was when the music died down and you could hear what the band could hear through their monitors and this wasn’t something that was apparently even picked up by the sound engineers; you can’t blame the band as they wouldn’t even be aware but you’d think people would do their jobs properly but no instead we were subjected to a subpar experience which was then unaided by the band themselves taking the piss out of us claiming it was only in certain parts in the crowd and implying we were thick not to move, no offence lads but a few of us did and you could hear fuck all anywhere in that venue. Knocked out a fair few from their new album “Plagues of Babylon” which is probably because this is the latest vocalist’s first album with them and they’re really trying to give it a push and sprinkling a few classics around to break it all up. I’m extremely disappointed because having seen Iced Earth with Stu Block before I’m well aware that his vocals are extraordinary and the energy on stage was fantastic, but the whole experience clouded by that monumental flaw in setup.

Elm Street 3/5
Warbringer 4/5
Iced Earth 3/5

Review By James Webb

 Iced Earth


Jon Schaffer
Stu Block
Troy Seele
Luke Appleton

 Warbringer


John Kevill
John Laux
Jeff Potts
Ben Mottsman
Carlos Cruz

 Elm Street


Ben Batres
Aaron Adie
Tomislav Perkovic
Anthony Longordo

 Band Related Links
Iced Earth Facebook
Warbringer Facebook
Elm Street Facebook
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?